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Books > Social sciences > Warfare & defence > Other warfare & defence issues > Prisoners of war

The Great Desert Escape - How the Flight of 25 German Prisoners of War Sparked One of the Largest Manhunts in American History... The Great Desert Escape - How the Flight of 25 German Prisoners of War Sparked One of the Largest Manhunts in American History (Hardcover)
Keith Warren Lloyd
R529 Discovery Miles 5 290 Ships in 2 - 4 working days

Dramatic, highly readable, and fresh, The Great Desert Escape brings to light an illuminating and little-known account of how twenty-five determined German U-Boat crewmen tunneled from American POW camp, crossed the unforgiving Arizona desert, and attempted to return battle. It was the only organized, large-scale domestic escape by foreign prisoners in U.S. history. Painstakingly wrung from contemporary newspaper articles, interviews and first-person accounts from escapees and the law enforcement officers who pursued them, The Great Desert Escape brings history alive. From 1942 to 1946, the United States swarmed with captured enemy troops. Nearly 400,000 German soldiers and officers were held in more than 500 POW camps throughout the country. One such camp was the U.S. Army's prisoner of war camp at Papago Park just outside of Phoenix, Arizona, where on December 23, 1944 25 German Kreigsmariners tunneled free, determined to reach Mexico and find sympathizers who would get the back to the Fatherland. For the prisoners, life was at the best of times uneasy. On the outside of their prison fences were Americans who wanted nothing more than to see them die slow deaths for their perceived roles in killing their fathers and brothers in Europe. Many of these stranded German prisoners had heard rumors of castrations and worse for those who had escaped. On the inside were on occasion rabid Nazis determined to get home and continue the fight. At Papago Park in March of 1944, a newly-arrived prisoner who was believed (correctly) to have divulged classified information to the Americans was murdered--hung in one of the barracks by seven of his fellow prisoners. The Great Desert Escape sheds new light on the little known chapter in World War II history. Papago Park housed nearly 4000 German POWs, most of whom were U-boat crewmen. Until the arrival of a new American commander, it had been a very inefficient and haphazard operation. Author Keith Warren Lloyd describes the culture of complacency that had developed among the guards and their officers. Before the Great Desert Escape, several other attempts had been made. As a dramatic backdrop to the main narrative, Lloyd describes the life of one of the escapees: his service as an officer aboard a U-boat, his final patrol where his U-boat is sunk, his capture and interrogation, his arrival at Papago Park and finally his involvement in the escape. In September 1944 the senior POW officer, Jurgen Wattenberg, directed that tunnel should be dug from the bathhouse to the Arizona Crosscut Canal, which ran along the northern edge of the camp. The prisoners obtained digging tools from the guards, telling them that they wished to construct a volleyball court. They would go into the bathhouse at night to work on the tunnel. The soil around Papago Park was extremely hard and full of rocks, so the guards never expected them to be digging. The tunnel, six feet deep and 178 feet long, was completed in December of 1944. The plan was to escape to Mexico and locate people sympathetic to Germany (the reasons for their sympathy will also be described) who would arrange passage for them back to the Fatherland. Three of the escapees had built a collapsible raft and planned to float the Salt River to the Colorado and then to the Gulf of California, having seen the Salt River on a stolen map. They didn't know that one could step easily across the Salt River at that time of year. Discouraged, the 25 prisoners scattered. The Great Desert Escape recounts the flight of the prisoners. One U-boat officer found himself sitting at a lunch counter next to a suspicious Phoenix Police officer. Another asked for directions from a street cleaning crew, his accent betraying him. The cold and rainy weather caused several of the escapees (who by then had been acclimated to the desert) to turn themselves in. Still others lived like coyotes among the rocks and caves overlooking Papago Park before being rounded up. All of the escapees were eventually re-captured within six weeks. The book will then describe the inquiries and investigations by the army and the FBI in the aftermath of the escape. It is an ideal addition to Lyons rich military history list, including The Long Walk, which has sold more than 300,000 copies.

Life and Death in Captivity - The Abuse of Prisoners during War (Hardcover): Geoffrey P. R. Wallace Life and Death in Captivity - The Abuse of Prisoners during War (Hardcover)
Geoffrey P. R. Wallace
R1,011 Discovery Miles 10 110 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Why are prisoners horribly abused in some wars but humanely cared for in others? In Life and Death in Captivity, Geoffrey P. R. Wallace explores the profound differences in the ways captives are treated during armed conflict. Wallace focuses on the dual role played by regime type and the nature of the conflict in determining whether captor states opt for brutality or mercy. Integrating original data on prisoner treatment during the last century of interstate warfare with in-depth historical cases, Wallace demonstrates how domestic constraints and external incentives shape the fate of captured enemy combatants. Both Russia and Japan, for example, treated prisoners very differently in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-5 and in World War II; the behavior of any given country is liable to vary from conflict to conflict and even within the same war.Democracies may be more likely to treat their captives humanely, yet this benevolence is rooted less in liberal norms of nonviolence than in concerns over public accountability. When such concerns are weak or absent, democracies are equally capable of brutal conduct toward captives. In conflicts that devolve into protracted fighting, belligerents may inflict violence against captives as part of a strategy of exploitation and to coerce the adversary into submission. When territory is at stake, prisoners are further at risk of cruel treatment as their captors seek to permanently remove the most threatening sources of opposition within newly conquered lands. By combining a rigorous strategic approach with a wide-ranging body of evidence, Wallace offers a vital contribution to the study of political violence and wartime conduct.

The Railway Man (Paperback, New Ed): Eric Lomax The Railway Man (Paperback, New Ed)
Eric Lomax 2
R298 R243 Discovery Miles 2 430 Save R55 (18%) Ships in 9 - 15 working days

A naive young man, a railway enthusiast and radio buff, was caught up in the fall of the British Empire at Singapore in 1942. He was put to work on the 'Railway of Death' - the Japanese line from Thailand to Burma. Exhaustively and brutally tortured by the Japanese for making acrude radio, Lomax was emotionally ruined by his experiences. Almost 50 years after the war, however, his life was changed by the discovery that his interrogator, the Japanese interpretor, was still alive - their reconciliation is the culmination of this extraordinary story.

The Escape Artists - A Band of Daredevil Pilots and the Greatest Prison Breakout of WWI (Paperback): Neal Bascomb The Escape Artists - A Band of Daredevil Pilots and the Greatest Prison Breakout of WWI (Paperback)
Neal Bascomb 1
R397 R326 Discovery Miles 3 260 Save R71 (18%) Ships in 9 - 15 working days

In the winter trenches and flak-filled skies of World War I, captured soldiers and pilots narrowly avoided death only to find themselves imprisoned in Germany's archipelago of brutal POW camps. After several unsuccessful escapes, a group of Allied prisoners of Holzminden - Germany's land-locked Alcatraz- hatched the most elaborate escape plan yet known. With ingenious engineering, disguises, forgery and courage, their story would electrify Britain in some of its darkest hours of the war. Drawing on never-before-seen memoirs and letters, Neal Bascomb brings this little-known story narrative to life amid the despair of the trenches and the height of patriotic duty.

Judy: A Dog in a Million - From Runaway Puppy to the World's Most Heroic Dog (Paperback): Damien Lewis Judy: A Dog in a Million - From Runaway Puppy to the World's Most Heroic Dog (Paperback)
Damien Lewis 1
R331 R270 Discovery Miles 2 700 Save R61 (18%) Ships in 9 - 15 working days

The impossibly moving story of how Judy, World War Two's only animal POW, brought hope in the midst of hell. Judy, a beautiful liver and white English pointer, and the only animal POW of WWII, truly was a dog in a million, cherished and adored by the British, Australian, American and other Allied servicemen who fought to survive alongside her. Viewed largely as human by those who shared her extraordinary life, Judy's uncanny ability to sense danger, matched with her quick-thinking and impossible daring saved countless lives. She was a close companion to men who became like a family to her, sharing in both the tragedies and joys they faced. It was in recognition of the extraordinary friendship and protection she offered amidst the unforgiving and savage environment of a Japanese prison camp in Indonesia that she gained her formal status as a POW. Judy's unique combination of courage, kindness and fun repaid that honour a thousand times over and her incredible story is one of the most heartwarming and inspiring tales you will ever read.

A World apart (Paperback): Gustav Herling A World apart (Paperback)
Gustav Herling
R590 R523 Discovery Miles 5 230 Save R67 (11%) Ships in 10 - 15 working days
The Great Boer Escape (Paperback): Willie Steyn The Great Boer Escape (Paperback)
Willie Steyn
R336 Discovery Miles 3 360 Ships in 2 - 4 working days

Willie Steyn, the author, was one of six hundred Boer prisoners sent by ship to the island of Ceylon to be interned in the Diyatalawa prisoner-of-war camp during the Anglo-Boer War. While their ship was anchored in Colombo harbour on a dark, moonless night, Steyn and four of his fellow prisoners lowered themselves into the sea, each waiting until his predecessor had got away undetected by the guards on board and in vessels patrolling around the ship.

The charm of Steyn’s personal account of his adventures lies in its understatement and its matter-of-fact simplicity. He does not portray himself as a hero, nor does he lay any claim to fame, but his account gathers intensity and force as the story progresses. Willie Steyn was intent on escape from the moment he was taken into captivity, and the reader experiences a corresponding intensity, encountering Willie as a free spirit throughout his captivity and his protracted journey home.

Deneys Reitz – author of Commando and well known for his own bravery – called Steyn ‘one of our bravest men’, and described Steyn’s escape as ''a deed that is in my opinion without equal in the history of escape.''

Five Years To Freedom - The True Story Of A Vietnam P.O.W. (Paperback, Reissue): James Rowe Five Years To Freedom - The True Story Of A Vietnam P.O.W. (Paperback, Reissue)
James Rowe 1
R264 R208 Discovery Miles 2 080 Save R56 (21%) Ships in 10 - 15 working days

When Green Beret Lieutenant James N. Rowe was captured in 1963 in Vietnam, his life became more than a matter of staying alive.

In a Vietcong POW camp, Rowe endured beri-beri, dysentery, and tropical fungus diseases. He suffered grueling psychological and physical torment. He experienced the loneliness and frustration of watching his friends die. And he struggled every day to maintain faith in himself as a soldier and in his country as it appeared to be turning against him.

His survival is testimony to the disciplined human spirit.
His story is gripping.

Under the Heel of Bushido - Last Voices of the Jewish POWs of the Japanese in the Second World War (Hardcover, New): Martin... Under the Heel of Bushido - Last Voices of the Jewish POWs of the Japanese in the Second World War (Hardcover, New)
Martin Sugarman, Colin Shindler
R1,586 Discovery Miles 15 860 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

This book contains dozens of accounts - both horrific and inspiring, amusing and sad - of the experiences of Jewish prisoners of war and internees from Commonwealth and Dutch forces imprisoned by the Japanese during World War II. Along with dozens of photographs from private collections, the material presented is previously unpublished, gathered from personal interviews and archives worldwide. Under the Heel of Bushido is a tribute to the courage and suffering of these men and women of the Jewish community whose experiences have been virtually ignored. The veterans interviewed for the book share painful testimonies, offering a snapshot of the total Jewish involvement, as so many of the 550 or so Jewish prisoners of war who survived their ordeal passed away before they could tell their stories. There was a particular Jewish participation and encounter with the Japanese, and Under the Heel of Bushido chronicles this unique account for the first time. *** "Anti-Semitism was largely absent; the concept - and the Nazis' obsession with Jews - was puzzling to most Japanese, though there were incidents initiated by German liaison officers and Muslim propaganda, and, of course, cruel acts done simply out of spite toward the enermy....In the absence of synagogues and rabbis, many of the Jewish POSs attempted and managed nonetheless to practice accommodated forms of Judaic rituals, including Friday night Sabbath services and, too often, funerals." - The NYMAS Review; StrategyPage, May 2014

Closing Guantanamo - Issues & Legal Matters Surrounding the Detention Centers End (Hardcover, New): Noah M. Claeys Closing Guantanamo - Issues & Legal Matters Surrounding the Detention Centers End (Hardcover, New)
Noah M. Claeys
R2,018 Discovery Miles 20 180 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

This book provides an overview of major legal issues likely to arise as a result of executive and legislative action to close the Guantanamo detention facility. It discusses legal issues related to the transfer or release of Guantanamo detainees (either to a foreign country or into the U.S.), the continued detention of such persons in the U.S., and the possible removal of persons brought to the U.S. This book also discusses selected constitutional issues that may arise in the criminal prosecution of detainees, emphasising the procedural and substantive protections that are utilised in different adjudicatory forums. Other issues discussed include detainees' right to a speedy trial, the prohibition against prosecution under ex post facto laws, and limitations upon the admissibility of hearsay and secret evidence in criminal cases. This book consists of public domain documents which have been located, gathered, combined, reformatted, and enhanced with a subject index, selectively edited and bound to provide easy access.

Enemy Combatant Detainees (Paperback, New): Earl P. Bettinton Enemy Combatant Detainees (Paperback, New)
Earl P. Bettinton
R1,172 R1,031 Discovery Miles 10 310 Save R141 (12%) Ships in 12 - 17 working days

After the U.S. Supreme Court held that U.S. courts have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 2241 to hear legal challenges on behalf of persons detained at the U.S. Naval Station in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in connection with the war against terrorism (Rasul v. Bush), the Pentagon established administrative hearings, called "Combatant Status Review Tribunals" (CSRTs), to allow the detainees to contest their status as enemy combatants, and informed them of their right to pursue relief in federal court by seeking a writ of habeas corpus. Lawyers subsequently filed dozens of petitions on behalf of the detainees in the District Court for the District of Columbia, where district court judges reached inconsistent conclusions as to whether the detainees have any enforceable rights to challenge their treatment and detention. In December 2005, Congress passed the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 (DTA) to divest the courts of jurisdiction to hear some detainees' challenges by eliminating the federal courts' statutory jurisdiction over habeas claims by aliens detained at Guantanamo Bay (as well as other causes of action based on their treatment or living conditions). The DTA provides instead for limited appeals of CSRT determinations or final decisions of military commissions. After the Supreme Court rejected the view that the DTA left it without jurisdiction to review a habeas challenge to the validity of military commissions in the case of Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, the 109th Congress enacted the Military Commissions Act of 2006 (MCA) (P.L. 109-366) to authorize the President to convene military commissions and to amend the DTA to further reduce access to federal courts by "alien enemy combatants," wherever held, by eliminating pending and future causes of action other than the limited review of military proceedings permitted under the DTA. In June 2008, the Supreme Court held in the case of Boumediene v. Bush that aliens designated as enemy combatants and detained at Guantanamo Bay have the constitutional privilege of habeas corpus. The Court also found that MCA 7, which limited judicial review of executive determinations of the petitioners' enemy combatant status, did not provide an adequate habeas substitute and therefore acted as an unconstitutional suspension of the writ of habeas. The immediate impact of the Boumediene decision is that detainees at Guantanamo may petition a federal district court for habeas review of the legality and possibly the circumstances of their detention, perhaps including challenges to the jurisdiction of military commissions.

Out of Line, Out of Place - A Global and Local History of World War I Internments (Hardcover): Rotem Kowner, Iris Rachamimov Out of Line, Out of Place - A Global and Local History of World War I Internments (Hardcover)
Rotem Kowner, Iris Rachamimov
R2,899 R2,640 Discovery Miles 26 400 Save R259 (9%) Ships in 12 - 17 working days

With expert scholars and great sensitivity, Out of Line, Out of Place illuminates and analyzes how the proliferation of internment camps emerged as a biopolitical tool of governance. Although the internment camp developed as a technology of containment, control, and punishment in the latter part of the nineteenth century mainly in colonial settings, it became universal and global during the Great War. Mass internment has long been recognized as a defining experience of World War II, but it was a fundamental experience of World War I as well. More than eight million soldiers became prisoners of war, more than a million civilians became internees, and several millions more were displaced from their homes, with many placed in securitized refugee camps. For the first time, Out of Line, Out of Place brings these different camps together in conversation. Rotem Kowner and Iris Rachamimov emphasize that although there were differences among camps and varied logic of internment in individual countries, there were also striking similarities in how camps operated during the Great War.

Scattered Under the Rising Sun - The Gordon Highlanders in the Far East 1941 - 1945 (Paperback): Mitchell Stewart Scattered Under the Rising Sun - The Gordon Highlanders in the Far East 1941 - 1945 (Paperback)
Mitchell Stewart
R454 R371 Discovery Miles 3 710 Save R83 (18%) Ships in 9 - 15 working days

2nd Battalion, Gordon Highlanders was posted to Singapore in 1937 with their families. When the Japanese invaded Malaya in December 1941, the Battalion fought bravely until the surrender of Singapore on 14 February 1942\. Those who were not killed became POWs. Of the 1000 men involved initially, over 400 had died by their liberation in summer 1945. Despite the diverse background of the members of the Battalion, all were bound by close regimental spirit. As POWs, all suffered hard labour, starvation, brutality and tropical diseases. Rank was no protection from death. After initial incarceration in Singapore the Gordons were dispersed to work on the famous Thai-Burma railway, in the mines of Taiwan and Japan and on other slave labour projects. Conditions defy modern comprehension. Others died trapped in hell-ships torpedoed by allied submarines. The author has researched the plight of these extraordinary men, so many of whom never saw their native Scotland again. Despite the grim conditions, he captures the strong collective regimental spirit and the humour and cooperation that saved so many who would have otherwise have perished D as many did. This is an inspiring tale of courage and survival against appalling odds.

A Pocket History of Kilmainham Gaol (Hardcover): A Pocket History of Kilmainham Gaol (Hardcover)
R224 R187 Discovery Miles 1 870 Save R37 (17%) Ships in 9 - 15 working days

From its opening in 1796 to finally closing its doors in 1924, Kilmainham Gaol has held an iconic place in Irish history. Built as Dublin's County Gaol, it held hundreds of Irish patriots in its cells, from Robert Emmet and Anne Devlin in 1803 through to the leaders of the 1916 Rising, fourteen of whom were famously executed in the prison's stonebreaker's yard. It was also a place of suffering for thousands of ordinary men, women and children, whose petty crimes such as stealing food could lead to long interments and then a prison ship to Australia. Today the Gaol is a happier place, where each year hundreds of thousands of visitors enjoy learning about the lives of those who once lived within its walls. Kilmainham Gaol remains one of the most popular tourist sites in Ireland with visitors from both home and abroad. A Pocket History of Kilmainham Gaol contains everything you need to know about one of Ireland's most popular tourist attractions.

Survivor on the River Kwai - The Incredible Story of Life on the Burma Railway (Paperback): Reg Twigg Survivor on the River Kwai - The Incredible Story of Life on the Burma Railway (Paperback)
Reg Twigg 1
R303 R248 Discovery Miles 2 480 Save R55 (18%) Ships in 9 - 15 working days

Survivor on the River Kwai is the heartbreaking story of one of the last survivors of the Burma Railway. February 1942. A young British soldier is caught up in the worst defeat in the history of the British Army, the fall of Singapore. Reg Twigg spends the next three years in hell, moving from jungle camp to jungle camp and building the Burma Railway for the all-conquering Japanese. Beaten, tortured, starving and forced to watch his comrades die, Reg fights for his survival, stealing from his captors, trapping animals and even making his own tobacco. That Reg survived is testimony to his own courage and determination, his will to beat the alien brutality of camp guards who had nothing but contempt for him and his fellow POWs. He was a risk taker whose survival strategies sometimes bordered on genius. As moving and harrowing as The Last Fighting Tommy, with the drama of David Lean's The Bridge Over the River Kwai and the heart of The Forgotten Highlander, Survivor on the River Kwai is Reg's story - his pain, his triumphs and even his forgiveness. Reg Twigg was born at Wigston (Leicester) barracks on 16 December 1913. He was called up to the Leicestershire Regiment in 1940 but instead of fighting Hitler he was sent to the Far East, stationed at Singapore. When captured by the Japanese, he decided he would do everything to survive. After his repatriation from the Far East, Reg returned to Leicester. With his family he returned to Thailand in 2006, and revisited the sites of the POW camps. Reg died in 2013, at the age of ninety-nine, two weeks before the publication of this book.

Living by Inches - The Smells, Sounds, Tastes, and Feeling of Captivity in Civil War Prisons (Hardcover): Evan a Kutzler Living by Inches - The Smells, Sounds, Tastes, and Feeling of Captivity in Civil War Prisons (Hardcover)
Evan a Kutzler
R2,769 Discovery Miles 27 690 Ships in 10 - 15 working days

From battlefields, boxcars, and forgotten warehouses to notorious prison camps like Andersonville and Elmira, prisoners seemed to be everywhere during the American Civil War. Yet there is much we do not know about the soldiers and civilians whose very lives were in the hands of their enemies. Living by Inches is the first book to examine how imprisoned men in the Civil War perceived captivity through the basic building blocks of human experience--their five senses. From the first whiffs of a prison warehouse to the taste of cornbread and the feeling of lice, captivity assaulted prisoners' perceptions of their environments and themselves. Evan A. Kutzler demonstrates that the sensory experience of imprisonment produced an inner struggle for men who sought to preserve their bodies, their minds, and their sense of self as distinct from the fundamentally uncivilized and filthy environments surrounding them. From the mundane to the horrific, these men survived the daily experiences of captivity by adjusting to their circumstances, even if these transformations worried prisoners about what type of men they were becoming.

Allied Internment Camps in Occupied Germany - Extrajudicial Detention in the Name of Denazification, 1945-1950 (Hardcover):... Allied Internment Camps in Occupied Germany - Extrajudicial Detention in the Name of Denazification, 1945-1950 (Hardcover)
Andrew H. Beattie
R2,512 Discovery Miles 25 120 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Between 1945 and 1950, approximately 130,000 Germans were interned in the Soviet zone of occupied Germany, including in former Nazi concentration camps. One third of detainees died, prompting comparisons with Nazi terror. But what about the western zones, where the Americans, British, and French also detained hundreds of thousands of Germans without trial? This first in-depth study compares internment by all four occupying powers, asking who was interned, how they were treated, and when and why they were arrested and released. It confirms the incomparably appalling conditions and death rates in the Soviet camps but identifies similarities in other respects. Andrew H. Beattie argues that internment everywhere was an inherently extrajudicial measure with punitive and preventative dimensions that aimed to eradicate Nazism and create a new Germany. By recognising its true nature and extent, he suggests that denazification was more severe and coercive but also more differentiated and complex than previously thought.

Administration of Torture - A Documentary Record from Washington to Abu Ghraib and Beyond (Hardcover): Jameel Jaffer, Amrit... Administration of Torture - A Documentary Record from Washington to Abu Ghraib and Beyond (Hardcover)
Jameel Jaffer, Amrit Singh; Foreword by Anthony Romero, Steven Shapiro
R2,271 R2,085 Discovery Miles 20 850 Save R186 (8%) Ships in 12 - 17 working days

When the American media published photographs of U.S. soldiers abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib, the Bush administration assured the world that the abuse was isolated and that the perpetrators would be held accountable. Over the next three years, it refined its narrative at the margins, but by and large its public position remained the same. Yes, the administration acknowledged, some soldiers abused prisoners, but these soldiers were anomalous sadists who ignored clear orders. Abuse, the administration said, was aberrational-not systemic, not widespread, and certainly not a matter of policy.

The government's own documents, obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union, tell a starkly different story. They show that the abuse of prisoners was not limited to Abu Ghraib but was pervasive in U.S. detention facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan and at Guant?namo Bay. Even more disturbing, the documents reveal that senior officials endorsed the abuse of prisoners as a matter of policy-sometimes by tolerating it, sometimes by encouraging it, and sometimes by expressly authorizing it. Records from Guant?namo describe prisoners shackled in excruciating "stress positions," held in freezing-cold cells, forcibly stripped, hooded, terrorized with military dogs, and deprived of human contact for months. Files from Afghanistan and Iraq describe prisoners who had been beaten, kicked, and burned. Autopsy reports attribute the deaths of those in U.S. custody to strangulation, suffocation, and blunt-force injuries.

"Administration of Torture" is the most detailed account thus far of what took place in America's overseas detention centers, including a narrative essay in which Jameel Jaffer and Amrit Singh draw the connection between the policies adopted by senior civilian and military officials and the torture and abuse that took place on the ground. The book also reproduces hundreds of government documents--including interrogation directives, FBI e-mails, autopsy reports, and investigative files--that constitute both an important historical record and a profound indictment of the Bush administration's policies with respect to the detention and treatment of prisoners in U.S. custody abroad.

1,000 Days on the River Kwai - The Secret Diary of a British Camp Commandant (Hardcover): H C Owtram 1,000 Days on the River Kwai - The Secret Diary of a British Camp Commandant (Hardcover)
H C Owtram
R600 R489 Discovery Miles 4 890 Save R111 (19%) Ships in 9 - 15 working days

Memoirs by former prisoners of war of the Japanese invariably make for moving reading but Colonel Owtrams account of his years of captivity has a special significance. After being captured in Singapore and transported to the infamous Burma railway he was appointed the British Camp Commandant at Chungkai, one of the largest POW camps. Many ex-prisoners testified to the mental and physical courage that he showed protecting POWs from the worst excesses of their captors. Of course his account does not admit to this but what is clear is that in addition to the deprivation and hardship suffered by all POWs, the author bore heavy responsibility for those under his charge and the daily trauma of dealing with the unpredictable Japanese. It is not only the prisoners who suffered but their families at home. The postscript written by the authors daughters vividly demonstrates the agonies of doubt and worry that loved ones went through and the effect of the experience on all.

Adios to Tears - The Memoirs of a Japanese-Peruvian Internee in U.S. Concentration Camps (Hardcover): Seiichi Higashide Adios to Tears - The Memoirs of a Japanese-Peruvian Internee in U.S. Concentration Camps (Hardcover)
Seiichi Higashide; Foreword by C. Harvey Gardiner; Preface by Elsa H. Kudo; Epilogue by Julie Small
R2,251 Discovery Miles 22 510 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Adios to Tears is the very personal story of Seiichi Higashide (1909-97), whose life in three countries was shaped by a bizarre and little-known episode in the history of World War II. Born in Hokkaido, Higashide emigrated to Peru in 1931. By the late 1930s he was a shopkeeper and community leader in the provincial town of Ica, but following the outbreak of World War II, he-along with other Latin American Japanese-was seized by police and forcibly deported to the United States. He was interned behind barbed wire at the Immigration and Naturalization Service facility in Crystal City, Texas, for more than two years. After his release, Higashide elected to stay in the U.S. and eventually became a citizen. For years, he was a leader in the effort to obtain redress from the American government for the violation of the human rights of the Peruvian Japanese internees. Higashide's moving memoir was translated from Japanese into English and Spanish through the efforts of his eight children, and was first published in 1993. This second edition includes a new Foreword by C. Harvey Gardiner, professor emeritus of history at Southern Illinois University and author of Pawns in a Triangle of Hate: The Peruvian Japanese and the United States; a new Epilogue by Julie Small, cochair of Campaign for Justice-Redress Now for Japanese Latin Americans; and a new Preface by Elsa H. Kudo, eldest daughter of Seiichi Higashide.

165 Days: Prisoner of the Taliban (Hardcover): Asad Qureshi 165 Days: Prisoner of the Taliban (Hardcover)
Asad Qureshi
R658 Discovery Miles 6 580 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

British documentary filmmaker Asad Qureshi works in the world's most dangerous places. When he set off to film secret interviews with Taliban commanders, the award-winning filmmaker found himself on the wrong end of the camera lens, with a gun at his temple and a price of 10 million US dollars on his head. Asad would spend 165 days in captivity before his family was able to pay his ransom and secure his release. The negotiations and eventual release were coordinated by Al Qaeda intermediaries. Throughout his time as a hostage, Qureshi was tortured and humiliated, as were his fellow prisoners, several of whom would not return. This is a true, first-person account of Taliban captivity in Waziristan, the dangerous border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Above all, it provides a stark reminder of the privilege of freedom.

Prison Elite - How Austrian Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg Survived Nazi Captivity (Hardcover): Erika Rummel Prison Elite - How Austrian Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg Survived Nazi Captivity (Hardcover)
Erika Rummel
R1,251 Discovery Miles 12 510 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

After the Anschluss (annexation) in 1938, the Nazis forced Austrian Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg to resign and kept him imprisoned for seven years, until his rescue by the Allies in 1945. Schuschnigg's privileged position within the concentration camp system allowed him to keep a diary and to write letters which were smuggled out to family members. Drawing on these records, Prison Elite paints a picture of a little-known aspect of concentration camp history: the life of a VIP prisoner. Schuschnigg, who was a devout Catholic, presents his memoirs as a "confession," expecting absolution for any political missteps and, more specifically, for his dictatorial regime in the 1930s. As Erika Rummel reveals in fascinating detail, his autobiographical writings are frequently unreliable. Prison Elite describes the strategies Schuschnigg used to survive his captivity emotionally and intellectually. Religion, memory of better days, friendship, books and music, and maintaining a sense of humour allowed him to cope. A comparison with the memoirs of fellow captives reveals these tactics to be universal. Studying Schuschnigg's writing in the context of contemporary prison memoirs, Prison Elite provides unique insight into the life of a VIP prisoner.

The Taste of Longing - Ethel Mulvany and her Starving Prisoners of War Cookbook (Paperback): Suzanne Evans The Taste of Longing - Ethel Mulvany and her Starving Prisoners of War Cookbook (Paperback)
Suzanne Evans
R547 R497 Discovery Miles 4 970 Save R50 (9%) Ships in 9 - 15 working days

"Enjoy your homes. Enjoy your food. There is nothing that can take their place." Half a world away from her home in Manitoulin Island, Ethel Mulvany is starving in Singapore's infamous Changi Prison, along with hundreds of other women jailed there as POWs during the Second World War. They beat back pangs of hunger by playing decadent games of make-believe and writing down recipes filled with cream, raisins, chocolate, butter, cinnamon, ripe fruit-the unattainable ingredients of peacetime, of home, of memory. In this novelistic, immersive biography, Suzanne Evans presents a truly individual account of WWII through the eyes of Ethel-mercurial, enterprising, combative, stubborn, and wholly herself. The Taste of Longing follows Ethel through the fall of Singapore in 1942, the years of her internment, and beyond. As a prisoner, she devours dog biscuits and book spines, befriends spiders and smugglers, and endures torture and solitary confinement. As a free woman back in Canada, she fights to build a life for herself in the midst of trauma and burgeoning mental illness. Woven with vintage recipes and transcribed tape recordings, the story of Ethel and her fantastical POW Cookbook is a testament to the often-overlooked strength of women in wartime. It's a story of the unbreakable power of imagination, generosity, and pure heart.

Operation Swallow - American Soldiers' Remarkable Escape From Berga Concentration Camp (Paperback): Mark Felton Operation Swallow - American Soldiers' Remarkable Escape From Berga Concentration Camp (Paperback)
Mark Felton
R375 R296 Discovery Miles 2 960 Save R79 (21%) Ships in 5 - 7 working days

Operation Swallow is the true story of how a small group of American soldiers, inspired by a charismatic but reluctant leader named Hans Kasten, worked to save hundreds of fellow servicemen from a Nazi plan to turn Jewish prisoners of war into concentration camp slaves. It begins in the snowy forests of the Ardennes during Christmas 1944 and ends at the charnel house of Buchenwald concentration camp in spring 1945. It is a remarkable battle of wills between a young GI thrust into a leadership position he didn't want and an SS officer who will stop at nothing to complete his orders. Written from personal testimonies and official documents, it is an escape story replete with courage, sacrifice, torture, despair and salvation. Even more remarkably, it is a story that has barely been told before, a chapter of US military history that the American government tried to suppress for decades - and an uplifting story that deserves to be widely known.

French Colonial Soldiers in German Captivity during World War II (Hardcover): Raffael Scheck French Colonial Soldiers in German Captivity during World War II (Hardcover)
Raffael Scheck
R2,524 Discovery Miles 25 240 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

This book discusses the experience of nearly 100,000 French colonial prisoners of war captured by Nazi Germany during World War II. Raffael Scheck shows that the German treatment of French colonial soldiers improved dramatically after initial abuses, leading the French authorities in 1945 to believe that there was a possible German plot to instigate a rebellion in the French empire. Scheck illustrates that the colonial prisoners' contradictory experiences with French authorities, French civilians, and German guards created strong demands for equal rights at the end of the war, leading to clashes with a colonial administration eager to reintegrate them into a discriminatory routine.

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